My School Volleyball Life

It all started from my primary school days.  My school Shri Durga Devi School is always know for quality volleyball team in Hubli. Except volley ball there was no other sports to play, talk or watch. Years of volleyball success has naturally drawn students towards playing this game. Basically, except volleyball we didn't played any other sports.

If I recall correctly, I started playing volleyball somewhere from 2nd or 3rd standard during games period. Later during my 6^th standard I was playing for my school primary team. My first Tournament I remember was playing at Fathima High School when I was in 7^th standard. It was Boys taluk level matches, where-in all local primary school team participated. We played with St. Mary’s in finals and defeated them. I still remember the St. Mary’s sports dress, the cream color sleeveless shirt with brown shorts. It was rainy season and we played in rain. Wow, it was very existing experience at that time. Near my house neighbor hood too there were many volleyball teams, everyday after school and during Sunday’s I played volleyball.

Well I grew up watching some great senior players of our school. My senior Raghu Dhongadi, Ganapathi Baddi have  played at National Levels, they were the best players our school has ever produced. Other players are Kapil Dhongadi, Gopal Meherwade, Mahender Baddi, Mahesh Tiwari, Pradeep, Srinivas who played at state level  and were amazing too. Raghu Dhongadi was four year senior to me. Even after his schooling, he used to come in the evening to coach us. His jump, spike, blocking, setting was always a wow factor for all of us. And that was a huge motivation for all the up coming primary players. I still admire his game a lot. His swing jump, smatch(spike) load, wrist work on the ball and reach for the block was simply amazing. As the department matches came closer we used to practice for hours together in our school ground. We loved watching senior playing the game, each smatch (spike) was discussed and most important was who hit the ball very hard and how high it bounced. Though as per rules of under 14, net height was supposed to be low but our P.Ed sir always made us to practice at senior level height. Sir and seniors always made us to do heavy work-outs. Without work-outs no one was allowed to play the game in court.  Spartan and Niva were common brands of volleyball at that time. Rain, mud, hot sun did not mattered, we played and played. Rainy season volleyball was most memorable one. One rain and our school ground used to turn into a pond, in that we loved playing and diving. Later in High school we started playing many tournaments. At school departmental Taluk level matches, we were winners in all my 8^th, 9^th, 10^th  Std .  The important tournaments were Dasara sports, JK tutorial tournament, Railway Quarters Tournament, Byhatti Flood light tournament, Anchatgeri Tournament, Don-Bosco  which we won successively for 3 years, and may more countless open tournaments. Wow! high school volleyball days tournaments were pretty serious and tough. But when there was open tournament, we along with seniors played many games. So during open tournament we used to clash with many of our old time revivals namely Gangadhar school players, Railways Quarters, Nehru Nagar team and many more. But most of the time all the open tournament we played together as team were me, Raghu Dhongadi, Kapil Dhongadi, Raghavendra Navale, Sachin Mane, Srinivas Solanki, Vinod Jituri, Gajendar Singh, Shrikant Baddi etc.

Some of the note able players in and around Hubli during that time were Stephen (St. Michaels), Khalid Khan, Raghu Jituri (Gangadhar school), Jackson (Railway Quarters), Jimmy (St.Michaels), Parshu (Railways) and may others.  And now I think many more must have emerged.

Our school didn't had the best of the infrastructure that was needed for this game.  We used to hardly get two set of volleyballs and a old net to play. And the ground during the rainy season, oh man a complete mess!!! Many a times we team members have cleaned the clogged drains and dump sand lumps on wet court to make it playable.  But we never complained, we always thought that it was our duty to make the ground playable no matter what. Still we played and were known for quality game among the locals. Those were the days when we were required with the right sports gear like light weight shoes, knee pads, jerseys, tubeless volley ball, firm net, level ground, flood lights, dressing room, etc etc. But neither our school nor we had so much money to get all those stuff.  Many of us were offered Sports Hostel admission to make a career in Volleyball during our high school days. But our school senior players advised us not to take this game as a career, because to be frank there was nothing called a sports career in this game during that time. All the best players in town after playing Nationals, got jobs in Railways, KSRTC, Police constables and few have opted coaching volleyball for students, well that’s the truth, we played because we loved to play this game and except that we didn't knew any other sports. Hope things might have changed now. My engineering volleyball days were better in terms of infrastructure and other facilities. It was totally a different life, which I have not covered in this blog.

So now when I close my eyes and look back at those good old days I say it to myself that “I can buy best of the best sports gear, enroll in elite volleyball club with indoor stadium, but what’s the point? Neither I get time to play this game regularly nor any set goal of winning a particular tournament.”  My school days were the most killers days where we ruled the game in town, now all these are just a sweet memories. Wish I atleast had a video camera during those days to capture all the beautiful matches that we played.

Now all our school volley ball players are busy in their life, we hardly have any time or energy to sit and go back to think about those lovely days. Thus all those sweet memories go unheard; therefore this blog is kind of a written memo to my school volleyball life and to all the unsung volleyball camps which our school  had produced. 

Brain Drain From Hubli

We always hear brain drain from India to US and to other foreign countries. But the fact is that brain drain happens from micro scales. People move from villages to town, town to cities and to metros. It’s all basically in search of better job and living. I am not much concerned about migration of people from other cities and towns. But the brain drain from my own city makes me to think for a while.

Consider my own engineering college as example, it all starts from the final year. Many students get placed in various different campus visiting companies. This is the time when a student is virtually been migrated to the city where the company is based. And for the guys who cannot make it to the campus placement, any of the metros is the obvious choice of migration. During this time we are all helpless, but to accept the fact that we have to move to these cities for a better career. And everyone is so excited about new job and career that, he doesn't think a while to accept a new city as his new home.

Following are few phases of migration and cases, which ponders me to think,

• After graduation we move to any of the metro due to campus placement or in search of job. At this stage its only the student who makes the move leaving their parents behind in their respective home town. They opt to stay in a shared house/apartment with friends. In the initial stages the frequency of visiting Hubli during every month is quite high. Slowly because of work pressure and hectic life this frequency comes down.
• Later it happens that the parents who have only one son/daughter starts thinking that my son is working in Bangalore and we are staying in Hubli, which doesn't make much sense. So they decide upon moving to Bangalore finally. Few families tend to sell their independent house in Hubli or give it for rent to opt for an apartment life in Bangalore
• But the parents who have daughter have a different problem. For them the day their daughter leaves Hubli after graduation to join new company is like a partial goodbye to her in-laws home. Because the girl will get married in another year or so while being at job in Bangalore. So its straight way to sasural (in-law’s house) for her without staying for a considerable amount of time in Hubli with her parents after engineering.
• But in some case parents don’t like to leave Hubli, no matter what, they stay in Hubli even if their son/daughter is working in another city and these are such families which don't migrate.

Most of these graduates what to go back to their home town, but it rarely happens. Only few with exceptional cases will stay back, like Self Employment family business, Job in the local company. Thus year on year all these young graduates leave the town to make a better career in metros.  Slowly all the graduates will start losing the touch with their hometown and one day the attachment ends and there is no looking back in life.

Hopefully in future few big MNC’s and other tech startup companies establishes in Hubli, along with malls, multiplexes, etc etc.. may be this brain-drain might reverse.

So the big question is, will we ever go back?

“ Help Help Help” a voice from ladies toilet

Well this drama happened when we were in 5th semester Mechanical Engineering.

Characters: Abhishek, Guru, Amit, Ishwar, DJ…

Location: College Library (Clite), BVB Engineering College Hubli

It was one fine afternoon, when all of us were sitting in the library doing some assignment. Hey hang on, before I move further first let me give you a feel of our library, It has mainly 2 sections, one is reading and other is open space where in people discuss world wide happenings and college gossips. On that day, as most of the students were attending their classses, we could hardly see anyone in the library. We all mech guys were sitting around a study table and talking some crap. Somewhere from the background I heard a faint voice “Help Help”. Initially the voice was not that clear. I said to my friends ‘hey I heard someone calling for help..!!!’ Guru said “what, are you crazy! we did not hear any such voice". Others nodded supporting guru. There was silence for a moment and we guys continued what we were doing. But after some time the voice “Help Help” became more intense. And this time we all heard it. With anastonished look, we gazed each other in surpise. Abhya and guru said together “where the hell is this voice coming from?”. We started looking but there was no one around. Suddenly the voice became more intense and directed us to a place named “Ladies Toilet”. Later we moved in front of the toilet door, to confirm whether the voice is from inside. Finally a strong voice broke out from inside “Help Help”. And certainly it was a girl’s voice. Now the big question in front of us was what to do? Enter girls toilet or call someone. But abhishek said lets go inside and check out. I think it was abhya who took the call and opened the ladies toilet door. We were kind of worried like what might have happened inside and upon that entering a ladies toilet is not a comfortable situation as well. After entering we discovered that a girl was locked inside a bathroom from past half an hour. She was trying very hard to open the lock, but couldn’t succeed and thus was shouting for help from long time. Also she was crying. We calmed her saying that nothing will happen just cool down. First we gave her some instruction saying “Be calm and try opening the knob rotating in clockwise and anticlockwise direction”, she tried it and said “no it’s not coming”. Then suddenly abhishek started kicking the door furiously, thinking that the door lock will get open (something like bollywood movie scenes). I don’t know what went on his head, but he kicked really very hard. Hearing the door banging sound, the girl started crying again. Mean while I and guru checked the lock mechanism of another door. So finally we asked her to try rotating the knob anticlockwise and at the end of rotation apply some extra jerk (jimmy). She tried and finally the door popped out. The girl ran out of the bathroom with full velocity and disappeared.

Moral: Kicking doors like bollywood style doesn’t help.